Compendium 5/18/2010

Not a whole lot going on these days, or I'm too busy to write about the following topics separately:

• Owen celebrated his fourth birthday a few weeks ago. Unbelievable how time flies. It seemed like he was just coming home from the hospital...or was that Wyatt? Seriously though, I can't believe I have a four year old boy!


• I haven't written up any reviews of The Pacific lately. I've enjoyed the miniseries immensely, I hope to finish watching the last episode tonight. The miniseries really began to grow in intensity, with hopefully a strong finish.


• More education shenanigans, sort of: Our local county council basically underfunded the county dog pound. This brought the ire of many local residents who attended council meetings, wrote letters to the editor, and so on. Yet the school board has severe budget cuts and no one says a word -- school board meetings ill-attended, no letters, no protests. That shows you where the priorities lie here in Darlington County.


• I co-presented a workshop for the LIBRIS 2010 conference last Friday. It was really seat of our pants, because of a death in the family of my co-presenter, but she decided to do it at the last minute. It went really well and we had some good questions and discussion.


• Lisa finishes school next week, so my manic mornings will be done until August! Yay!
  

Education in South Carolina

I've just returned from the State Teacher of the Year Banquet, where a Spanish teacher from Greenville won the prestigious award for 2011. Although it would have been a great honor for Lisa to win, we're both really glad she didn't win. Maybe in a few years, should she have the honor to serve again as District T.O.T.Y, she could manage to have a family and travel across the state acting as the "education ambassador."

I was blown away by the magnitude of the celebration. Excellent food, music (all students from public schools), an open bar (!), and some great conversation with Lisa's fellow district winners. Lisa met a lot of the district winners at a conference in Myrtle Beach back in February, and had made quite a few friends. It was nice to see her enjoying herself with her peers -- peers in every sense of the word. All are just as motivated as she is in the classroom, and I think it was rejuvenating for her to spend time with like-minded people. I certainly enjoyed seeing her connect with these great teachers.

With the good times comes some clouds on the horizon. Hanging over everyone's head was the inevitable budget problems that every district in the state will be forced to deal with (if they haven't already). Furloughs, pay cuts, supply cuts, lost jobs, bigger classes are just a few of the plethora of bad news our besieged schools have been dealing with.

We actually got to go the SC Statehouse (which I shamefully have never been to before -- it was stunning), where the teachers were recognized in both chambers of the legislature. With this came the revelation that the current budget level for public education in South Carolina is at 1995 levels. Unreal, considering the population boom since then. There aren't any easy answers, of course, and that was a point that was struck home by our own state Senator, Gerald Malloy.

Lisa and I got to speak with him about what his thoughts were -- tax reform on the state level as a start -- but he criticized Lisa's school district's handling of the funding surplus. Evidently, Darlington County School District uses the highest percentage of tax revenue allowed by state law. However, not all of the money goes into the yearly budget of the district. Some of these funds are held in a rainy day account for emergency use. Someone mentioned that it was recommended that the districts carry 5-10% of their budget in this account, or about enough funding for 3 months of expenditures. Lisa knew about this, and due to her frugal nature, disagreed with Senator Malloy about this rainy day fund.

I like the middle road (what a shock!) - use some of this fund now, and save some for a contingency. Replenish the fund when the economy rebounds. If it isn't "raining" in South Carolina right now, then what would they consider rain?

All in all, it was a great 24 hours. Although I was always proud of Lisa's accomplishments as a teacher, I've never been more proud than I was today.

More Shenanigans from Liberal Cereal Guy

A few posts ago, I spoke about a friend of ours who is delightfully ignorant. This guy, although not a bad guy, is just clueless about how the rest of the country and world lives. To be honest, he listens to too much Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. But there are other issues here.

I recently learned that he has never taken his now two year old daughter to the pediatrician by himself. He rarely spends time alone with her. His wife claims that he "just isn't good" with her. So either his wife or her mother goes with him to the doctor. Once again, he is a professional in a related medical field. Unbelievable.

I've heard this before in this areas -- fathers being remote from their kids, often with in-laws or their own parents taking a larger role in their kid's lives, at least early on. But nothing like this.

I know I probably do too much compared to other fathers, but give me a break. How can you not manage to take your kid by yourself to the pediatrician ONCE in 25 months?

Tomorrow, I will be taking Owen to get "tested" for his placement in 4K. By myself. I can handle it.

Going without TV...sort of

We decided not to renew or extend our DirecTV contract when it ended late last month. At $80 a month for one receiver, the second tier package (which includes Sprout and VS. for my hockey addiction), HD access, and the service plan, it got to be a little more than what we wanted to spend. I suppose we could have cut the HD access and second tier programming, but even then it would still be around $65. The service plan paid for itself easily -- we'll definitely get it again.

Even if they gave us a great deal for renewing, it would have lasted about 6 of the 24 months of the contract, and probably would have ended up near $100 a month at the end of the term. Unreal.

To be honest, we really don't watch a lot of live television. The boys (well, Owen) watch videos and we watch streaming TV shows on the computers. Fortunately, Netflix started streaming their online content on the Wii a few days before shutting down our subscription to DirecTV. Great timing!

Netflix has tons of kids programming on there, including about 7 seasons of the lion series of Voltron, a favorite of my childhood. I was 11 when it was on though, so I am a little shocked at how much Owen likes it.

It should be interesting, and after 10 days, we don't miss it yet. We'll see how long we can hold out!

The Pacific Miniseries, Part Two Review

Yeah, I'm more than a little late on this one. I haven't seen part three yet (it aired last night), but I hope to get to it last night.

Part Two had more pure action scenes than the first episode, which isn't very surprising. A setup episode was needed, and that happened more or less in Part One. Eugene Sledge finally is allowed to join the Marines, even with his father's disapproval. He'll be trained and ready for the Peleliu invasion (September 1944) and for Okinawa.

This episode concentrates on our in-country Marines, Leckie and Baslione. Leckie's beleaguered unit is in a defensive position on the outskirts of Henderson Field. The supply issue becomes a major problem for everyone on Guadalcanal, including the Japanese. The Marines take to looting the newly arrived U.S. Army unit, helping themselves to the food and other goodies that their own quartermasters lack.

Leckie even gets sick from canned peaches, probably due to some bug or virus picked up on the island. Other members of his platoon have dysentery or malaria on top of the mental scars of seeing friends and comrades masticated by the gears of war.

It was interesting that both Leckie and Basilone's units use an air raid as a diversion to raid the Army's supply depot. For the most part, the Japanese had air superiority over the skies of Guadalcanal until the island fell completely under U.S. and Allied control. The newly landed Army units didn't know that the Japanese attacked the airfield and not the supply dump, which allowed the Marines free access to the unguarded dump. However, after Midway, the Marianas "Turkey Shoot", Battle of the Bismarck Sea, and other battles across the Pacific ocean, the Japanese would relinquish air superiority. The IJA and Navy would no longer have enough trained pilots or aircraft to mount raids or attack Allied shipping. This was true for invasion of Normandy and the fall of Germany -- not enough planes, pilots and fuel to attack the Allied forces. It is a great morale boost not having to look above the battlefield for threats, like the German and Japanese soldiers had to do for most of the war.

The rest of the episode centered around Sgt. Basilone's epic defense of Henderson Field, which won him the Medal of Honor. He essentially was the lynch pin of the airfield's defense against a massive Japanese attack. At one point, he had to clear a mound of dead and wounded Japanese soldiers from his field of fire -- quite dangerous indeed. During the battle, he loses a close friend and one of the central characters in his platoon.

A very good episode, and I can't wait to see the next one!

The Pacific Miniseries, Part One review and other comments

I remember hearing about The Pacific a couple of years ago. I knew Hanks, Spielberg and Company would be involved and that alone would guarantee it would be an excellent miniseries. Captain Dale Dye, technical adviser to many films and a capable actor himself, provided an excellent blog during the filming and post-production of the film. The blog gave real insight into the preparations and training of the actors and stunt performers.

This began a keen interest in all things Pacific Theater. I knew vaguely about the Pacific Theater -- Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Battle of Midway Island -- but nothing in depth like my knowledge of the European Theater. I read the books that the miniseries is based on -- Robert Leckie's Helmet for My Pillow and Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed... -- plus William Manchester's excellent Goodbye Darkness: a Memoir of the Pacific War. Patrick K. O'Donnell's compilation of Pacific veterans' oral histories Into the Rising Sun: World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat gave some interesting background to most of the major battles as well as the many atrocities committed by both sides. I had read James Bradley's two Pacific books a few years ago: Flyboys and Flags of our Fathers. I even read a fictional account of the invasion of Japan, called Death is Lighter Than A Feather by There are probably a couple of books I've forgotten about and there are plenty of fictional accounts out there, my favorite being The Thin Red Line by James Jones.

The common theme for many of these books is the brutality of the fighting. From the hostile climate of the Pacific island battlefields, to the vast Pacific Ocean, the war was not in a pleasant place to fight. Malaria, dysentery, various parasites, as well as snakes and insects probably caused as many casualties as Japanese bullets, bombs or bayonet.

The nature of the fighting itself was brutal. Japanese children were raised in a militaristic environment where failure brought shame to not only you, but your entire family. Dying for the Emperor was a high honor. Sadism to other prisoners and other ethnic groups deemed inferior (Chinese, Koreans, Malaysians etc.) were commonplace. Bradley talks about captured airmen being tortured and eaten (!) on Chichi Jima in his book Flyboys. The Rape of Nanking is another horrific chapter in Japanese military history. Bataan Death March. Hell Ships. Cabanatuan, Camp O'Donnell, Changi Prison, the Burmese-Thai Railroad...the list is nearly endless. American forces weren't immune to such abuses, and I'm hopeful that The Pacific shows these incidents (they were mentioned in both books). The lack of regard for the enemy combatant was not unique to the Pacific theater, but certainly not a mainstay of the European theater, as far as United States forces were concered. The Eastern Front of the ETO was a different story. The Soviets and Germans had no love or regard for each other.

We get a glimpse of the brutality in the first episode. After a long night on Guadalcanal, a group of Japanese emerges from the jungle. If my memory is correct, these were the remnants of a larger group either retreating from or attacking the key airfield on Guadalcanal (Henderson Field, which is still the airport's name today). The Marine combat unit (I think a heavy weapons platoon, but I'm going to have to double check) set an ambush at Alligator Creek and massacred these forces (battalion sized) during the night. These few soldiers emerge and are instantly cut down by the platoon, except for one lone soldier. The Marines toy with this crazed soldier, shooting his arm and shoulder, never going for the kill shot. He screams at the Marines to kill him, and most still toy with him. He is finally put out of his misery by our central character for that episode (picture above), but not without his fellow Marines admonishing him for ruining their fun.

I've read where this macabre sense of humor was one coping mechanism used by soldiers and Marines -- albeit subconsciously -- to keep their sanity. That certainly was evident in this scene, as they laughed at the hapless and deranged soldier. Their time on Guadalcanal will only get worse, as supplies grow short due to Japanese naval blockades and air raids.

The opening scene was of Eugene Sledge getting examined by his father, a prominent physician in Mobile, Alabama. Sledge is the second character that will prominently be seen in Pelielu and Okinawa. It is shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the country is in a fever pitch to get back at those dastardly Japanese. Like many of his friends, Eugene wants to join the Marines as soon as possible. When his father detects a heart murmur, he is devastated. He literally cries at the thought that he can't enlist and protect his country. It really got me thinking about our society and culture today. Granted, we did have a nice bump in enrollment after 9/11, but it has been nine years since that awful day. This current generation of kids whines about having to walk five minutes from the dorm to our library, for crying out loud. We are spoiled and pampered -- I am no exception to this.

The third character is eventual Medal of Honor winner John Basilone, who will be prominently featured in the second episode. He was a pre-war Marine, who joined in 1940, served in the Philippines before they fell in late 1941. They use his character, via a briefing of NCOs by Colonel Chesty Puller, to introduce the entire series with an overview of what would eventual unfold -- island hopping over a vast ocean. A great technique, and very effective even for someone who knows how the war was fought out there. We also meet his family and briefly see him as he lands as a reinforcement in Guadalcanal.

Needless to say, I can't wait for the second episode.

Random Musings

It's been a while, so naturally I have a few things on my mind.

1. For one reason or another, we found ourselves in Florence (SC) the last two Saturdays. I really haven't been there in quite some time, perhaps since early January. Florence has the closest Target, Best Buy, big book stores, and so on. We go there anytime we need to get those (many) items that aren't available in Hartsville. I am pleased to announce that both the mall and other stores (Kohl's) appeared to be fairly busy. The mall actually looked busier than it did in late November, at the height of the Christmas shopping season. Even if it's people spending tax refunds, I'll take it. It's good to see people spending money again.

2. In an interesting profile of Billy Corgan in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine (links to the TOC, article isn't online yet), former Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlain talks about his departure from the band. Nothing earth shattering there, or that Corgan's ego is still firmly in place despite being a pop culture non-entity since 1996. Chamberlain had an excellent quote about the current state of music:

"Music is such a small part of people's lives now...People don't sit around like they did in the Nineties and stare at album covers and think about Kurt and Billy."

This got me thinking about popular music -- do kids today listen to music the same way we used to back in Nineties? Or is this a disgruntled rock star venting about his former boss?

3. Maybe the most interesting thing about using Facebook is having friends from disparate universes argue with each other. For instance, an elementary school friend that I haven't seen since the other Bush was the P.U.S.A. got into a debate with my brother-in-law. Wild!

4. I'm not surprised that Darlington County had one of the lowest rates of return for the 2000 Census. The level of ignorance around here is stunning. Filling out the form takes minutes and might have made a difference here.

5. In related news, my wife had a PTO meeting last week -- staying at work until 7 PM, making for a 12 hour day -- and only two of her kids' parents showed up. Baseball practice > School function, evidently.

6. Wyatt will soon be 18 months old and Owen will be four in May. Unbelievable how time flies! We've been trying some gluten with Owen, and we haven't seen any negative results. We actually spent the night with my parents and he didn't have an issue with the cat, either.

7. We've finally started seeing signs of Spring around Hartsville. It has been the longest, coldest winter that I've had since leaving Pittsburgh in 1990. It rarely made it out of the 40s from late December until the end of February. Several weeks during that time, the temperatures never made it out of the 30s. It snowed three or four times, twice with significant accumulation. We had an ice storm, knocking out power for six hours. So weird! But I've really appreciated upper 50s-low 60s the last ten days or so.

8. The Pacific miniseries has started on HBO. Not surprisingly, it is excellent and I really enjoyed the first episode. HBO is streaming the first episode, but will make you buy HBO or maybe pay for the streams after that. Great marketing move for them -- and I think a unique one at that. They control their programming pretty tightly, so this is a big step forward (from my standpoint).

Liberal Cereal and Study Abroad Amended

Here is an actual conversation between some friends of ours:

Husband: What is this cereal?
Wife: It's Cinnamon Harvest, for my diet.
Husband: But why are you eating liberal cereal?
Wife: Huh? What?
Husband: It's organic liberal cereal.
Wife: Oh. Lisa gave it to me.
Husband: Well, there you go. She voted for Obama.

Yes, this is an actual conversation that occurred recently. I wasn't aware that a cereal could have political leanings, but evidently it does.

Now, the husband in this tale is not some mouth-breathing, slack-jawed dullard who rambles the aisles of the local Wal-mart in a tattered Gamecocks t-shirt. He has a advanced professional degree and currently works in a demanding and competitive field.

So, humble readers, what is his problem?

The main problem is that he hasn't really lived or traveled out of this rural community.

One area that will probably emerge from Coker's strategic plan is the need for increased, if not mandatory, study abroad/study away. With most (upwards of 70%) of our students coming from less than 45 minutes away from campus -- from some of the most rural and under-performing school districts in the state and thus the country -- the need to have the students see the world (or at least a different part of our country) is extremely important for growth.

I was fortunate to attend an awards dinner for our past and present study abroad scholarship winners. Most had never been abroad and all were deeply moved by their experiences. The problem is cost -- these trips routinely cost $1000-3000 (at least) depending on the length of the trip. Perhaps if we build that cost into tuition and send a large percentage outside of expensive Europe (South America perhaps), we could expand participation in these programs.

Back to my friend. Not surprisingly, he isn't a big reader, either. I asked what books he had read lately and he kind of shrugged. I expected him to say Left Behind, but he didn't even go there.

Knowledge and learning aren't stressed here very highly, despite our friend's seemingly high level of education. People tend to look down on others that are worldly or well-read.

How do we change this mindset? How do we get people to read for pleasure, to acquire intellectual curiosity?

It starts at home and complemented by formal education.

But until that time, our national reputation becomes a punchline:

Again into the Fray

I don't even know what the title means. I guess into the fray of blogging.

Anyway, another year has begun...2010. Sounds so futuristic. I remember being a little kid thinking 2000 was so far away, but here I am living in the future.

Wyatt got his ear tubes last month, so we've been antibiotic free for almost 40 days now! He is feeling a lot better now and seems to be talking a lot more...although it is his patented form of Ewok and Vietnamese. Although he has always had a pleasant disposition, he is just really happy right now. He must have had a lot of discomfort with his ears for quite some time -- constant pain for months.

Owen is Owen -- funny, stubborn and wickedly smart. He has a steel trap memory and recalls minute details of sights and conversations from months ago. He obviously gets the memory from his mother, because it is a good day if I remember what I had for breakfast this morning (oatmeal!)

Here are some things I hope to accomplish this year:

1. Lose 25 pounds. Yeah, original I know...
2. I would like to run a mile. Silly, but I haven't really done that yet. I always walked it in high school
3. Become a flexitarian. I'm not sure if I would miss meat or not, but I have already started to cut back on the meat intake.
4. I would really like to get up to Pittsburgh for one more Penguins game in the Mellon Arena, but it's probably cost prohibitive at this point. Everyone and their brother will be doing that this Spring, and there are only a handful (less than 20) games left.
5. Bake my own bread. I miss making bread and cookies -- why do I only do that during the holidays? I have a great whole wheat bread recipe, but it takes 12-24 hours to proof -- so I have to plan ahead

Five accomplishments is enough for now.

Reference Desk Liveblog

7:11PM
It's quieted down significantly in here tonight.

I read an interesting article about how Sarah Palin (or whoever wrote her autobiography) attributed a quote to John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, when it belonged to John Wooden Legs -- a Native American activist. Good stuff.

6:30PM
Just helped a student find a book with costumes and clothing from the Renaissance period. Interesting assignment.

6:00PM
Helped a nervous student find an e-book. He didn't think he had it in him to find it on his own...but he did. I then showed him how to find a couple of articles on topics he found in the book. Easy.

An unhappy faculty member disclosed that her students didn't want to write an in class assignment, using the (weak) argument that the class wasn't an English class. I can't imagine being that disinterested to complain to the professor in such a manner. What will happen when they graduate and can't communicate effectively? They will probably be hired by similar people who can't communicate well.


5:36PM
It bothers me to see able bodied people use the elevator. Walk people!

Just helped reset a Noodlebib password for a relieved student. Ah, with great power comes great adulation. Nothing would be worse than losing your works cited page minutes before a paper is due.


5:28PM
I haven't done one of these in a while. And it probably will be a slow one in here tonight. We've got the night before Reading Day, and all through the LITC, not a creature was stirring, certainly not a student.

OK, so that was lame.

But it's amazing how quickly the semester has flown by. The library has been very busy and we've set a record for number of one-shot instruction classes taught in a semester. Well, at least since I've been here.

Education in South Carolina

We've had a display of student photography from the so-called "Corridor of Shame" schools here at the library. The "Corridor of Shame" refers to schools that run alongside Interstate 95 in coastal South Carolina. Predominantly populated with African-American students, these schools are some of the worst in the state and thus the country. Underfunded, ill-kept, located in high poverty and high unemployment areas, these schools are really despicable.

Students can't or won't learn in such an environment and tend to dislike formal education, often dropping out and joining the ranks of the unemployed in the area. A constant cycle of dysfunction and poverty, all because of insufficient funding and racism.

I've had a couple of research questions about integration in South Carolina lately, so I've been looking into that sad tale. Governors and legislators blocking racial integration at every turn, predominantly black schools having double the class size of its white crosstown neighbor, black teachers making half the salary of white teachers in white school districts, and so on and so forth.

Education, of all things, should not have barriers because of race. An educated populace, of any race, color or creed, can only improve our state.

What were officials like James Byrnes and Strom Thurmond afraid of?

A Monkey Looks at One!

A year ago, we were getting ready for Wyatt to join the family. After nine months of worry with various health scares - low amniotic fluid and the potential for genetic defects and damage while inside the womb -- Wyatt Davis was born a healthy, happy little baby.

Fortunately, he didn't have any of the severe allergy issues that his older brother had, only light cradle cap and the occasional eczema spot on his legs.

It's been a whirlwind year beginning with me staying home with him for November and December, the crazy daycare situation (water, lights and car repossessed etc), Wyatt staying with the Williamses until the end of the school year, and finally getting to go to "school" with Owen (yay!) this Fall.

Although developmentally he is a few weeks behind where he should be, he is a very strong and healthy baby. Only one ear infection and no other major illnesses, unlike his brother who was sick a lot his first year.

He is walking along furniture and can even climb some steps, but it will be a while before he is walking unassisted. Owen, on the other hand, began walking unassisted the day before his first birthday.

We probably shouldn't be comparing the Owen and Wyatt's development cycle, because each child is different. Second children, I am told, develop more slowly and Wyatt was two weeks premature, adding to the time frame.

My only wish is that he would start sleeping through the night on a regular basis. He will sleep through maybe 1-2 in a two week stretch. Last night, Lisa was up at 4am giving him a bottle. The night before that, I was up at 1:45am. Two nights before that, he slept through the night without a peep. It will come around, probably when we get him weaned off of formula.

But what a year it has been! Time flies when you are having fun...

Home and Another School Year Begins...

It's one of the last quiet weeks here at Coker, at least until the Christmas holiday. I'm wrapping up the last major project of the summer, accumulating the various statistics for the many electronic resources we have.

So far, the statistics are slightly higher than they were last year -- even though we had fewer number of students enrolled. Our book circulation numbers are pretty flat, unfortunately. It's difficult to get students to use and read books when the databases and open Internet available to them 24/7.

Next week, we'll have the traditional back to campus meetings and the students will begin filing in next weekend. It was yet another quick summer here at Coker!

As for home, all is well. Wyatt is beginning to pull up on furniture and move around. He still has the happy disposition, for the most part. Both boys have had mild fevers off and on this week, with Wyatt coming off of a pretty severe ear infection (requiring back to back doses of antibiotics).

Owen can be very difficult at times because he is very headstrong and stubborn. His personality has changed a lot in the last few months. I can't help but wonder if this has to do with the older kids at daycare over the summer or just a natural progression.

He still astounds me with his knowledge and intelligence almost daily. He will remember the most minute detail, like who gave him a t-shirt a year ago. Last night, he pieced together a pun in the story I read him: a mother comes home from work and calls her husband and son "dears" because they are pretending to wear antlers. Owen said "Reindeers have antlers, too!"

We may have the beginnings of sibling rivalry, too. Owen can't let Wyatt touch any of his toys without snatching it away from him. Wyatt adores Owen, too...following him around the house as quickly as possible.

Pelzer 'Cut

I was reading an article about Happy Cow Creamery, a dairy located in Pelzer, SC. Interesting article about how they produce some excellent un-homogenized and lightly pasteurized milk and other dairy products.

I hadn't thought about Pelzer in a long time, probably since the last time I drove to visit friends still at Clemson back in 1998.

The road through Pelzer is a semi-famous shortcut to Clemson from all points south. Maybe it was just my group of people from the Charleston area who used it -- but it really saved us a lot of time, and kept us off of I-85 which was under construction for most of the mid-1990s when we were students at Clemson.

I have fond memories of that shortcut - Highway 418 exit off of I-385 near Fountain Inn, to Route 8/81 in Ware Place, to Road 88 near Liberty, to Highway 123 outside of Clemson.

Why fond memories? I have no idea. Most of the early trips along this shortcut were with friends from high school who attended Clemson. I didn't have a car up there until my junior year, so we would often car pool home for weekends or longer breaks. Lots of griping about school (courses, professors, football team, etc.), great music were always a part of these trips. Time flew by driving with a group, because that stretch of road is really boring. Especially from I-385 to Columbia.

My last two years at Clemson, which included one summer session (für Deutsch 202) I had my own car (well, trucks), so I would often drive alone. Lots of time to think about school, life after Clemson, and whatever else was going on.

I remember one fateful trip after Winter break, I was carpooling up with the son of one of the bakery's neighbors from King Street. He and I attended the same high school, but he was a few years younger than me - my brother's age, actually. He died tragically later that year in a single car crash. But I digress.

It was one of a handful of times in my almost 20 years in South Carolina that we had significant snowfall. Although I got my license in PA, it was during the summer...so I had no experience driving in snow. We decided to skip the Pelzer 'Cut because the main highways were barely plowed -- it turned out to be a good idea because there were several wrecks on that stretch of road that day. It took us about five hours to get to Clemson, more than 90 minutes longer than normal. At one point, I-85 had about half a lane plowed -- I drove 20+ miles at an angle, with the driver's side lower than the passenger side.

I remember driving through Pelzer in the Fall most predominantly, probably because Fall break and Thanksgiving break were fairly close together. The foliage was always pretty attractive through that area and if I recall correctly, there were several large pumpkin patches along the road.

Other highlights were the various mixtapes I would make for the trips -- yes, I had a cassette tape deck in both trucks. I can't imagine having the time to make mixtapes these days -- 100 minutes of real time recording from CDs! I don't even take the time to make playlists for my Zune! Nothing really special about the music on those tapes: lots of Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Allman Brothers Band, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, the Police, maybe some jazz or blues. I think I had a Sony Discman with a cassette tape adapter at one point, but mixtapes were always better for those trips home.

The last memory of the short cut (for now) is most significant because it didn't include the shortcut! Easter weekend, 1995. My 1985 Jeep Cherokee dies shortly after getting onto I-26 at Road 88 Jalapa. This piece of crap truck had been nothing but trouble since I bought it from my parents earlier that year. Probably deserving its own blog entry for posterity, but this was one lemon. Anyway, it died and I walked up the I-26 off ramp in Jalapa to call AAA for a tow.

The closest house, fortunately, was at the top of the ramp...but the woman wouldn't let me in. I was in my shaved head/goatee/ 270+ lbs phase, so I can't blame her at all. This was also before most non-wealthy people had cellular phones, too. I had to slide the AAA card under the door, and she made the call.

I waited back at the truck, and after 90 minutes the tow truck from Newberry pulls up. He loads the Jeep up, and we hop in the cab for the ride back to Clemson. On the seat between us, I notice he has an automatic pistol. Great. Apparently, I had a shocked look on my face and hereassures me it is for his protection -- he meets all kinds of people out here. He also comments that the poor woman who made the call should put a pay phone outside of her house -- his tow company gets 3-4 calls a week from her alone, not including the indirect calls from automobile clubs and auto manufacturer warranty tows.

EDIT: Looking at Google Maps StreetView, there is a broken down tanker truck at the top of that exit ramp. Amazing!

Now with AAA Plus, or whatever the name of the plan was, I got 100 miles of free towing. Beyond that, it was $1.50 per mile -- I was beyond broke at this point, and calling home wasn't an option because of the dire situation of the bakery. I knew I had driven about 80 miles or so to that point; the shortcut back would get me back to Clemson short of AAA's towing limit. Unfortunately, the driver didn't "trust no shortcut" and stayed on the interstates for the trip back. If he was going to drive all the way to Clemson, might as well get paid a little bonus, right? Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck all the way back, watching the trip odometer frantically. I had him tow me to the Death Valley Exxon station (wonder if that's still there?), which was closest to my apartment -- 97 miles. Whew. The Jeep's repair and drive home at the end of the semester is worthy of its own blog entry, believe me.

All of this outpouring because an article about a dairy farm. Yikes!

Also: thanks to Panoramio user bearden82 for the picture. She/he has some excellent pictures of the Pelzer/Ware Place area.

Family Vacation Roadtrip

We had our first lengthy roadtrip vacation as a family of four last week. We had a blast, although it was exhausting at times. We're actually all still exhausted, and Owen has actually come down with some sort of fever.

Briefly, we drove from H-ville to Toronto and on the return trip, spent some time in Pittsburgh.

Here are some things I learned:

• The portable DVD player was the best $100 I've spent on Owen yet -- minus medical costs and food, of course. Even if he watched the 10 minutes of bonus features of Cars about 400 times in the 28 hours we spent in the van.
• The engineers who blasted the West Virginia Turnpike out of those mountains way back in the 1950s deserve some sort of commendation. What a long and winding road. People really overlook the importance of the highway system and Eisenhower's leadership in this area. Shame we got the idea from Adolf Hitler...
• We broke the drive up in two halves, staying in Morgantown, WV the first night. It was a perfect amount of time on the road -- around 8 hours or so, with frequent stops.
• Speaking of stops, Owen did an excellent job with potty stops -- only a couple more than what Lisa and I would have done if we were driving sans kids.
• Toronto is a wonderful city. Even with a city worker strike, the city was clean and most everyone was marginially friendly -- it doesn't help to have a cute baby with you either!
• Canadians are proud of their country. We were there during Canada Day, and most everyone wore flags or red shirts -- even the skate punks at the coffee shop in the Beaches. Much more patriotic than in the U.S., it seemed.
• One cool thing (and I wish I got a picture of it) is that the city of Toronto gives each household a larger recycling bin than garbage can! In fact, my sister-in-law informed me that the trash can has a false bottom, making it even smaller than it looks. How great is that? Darlington County is so far behind in recycling that it's pathetic. They don't even take office paper or junk mail unless it is shredded. Like public education here, it isn't a priority.
• Wyatt learned how to crawl during the trip, which was amazing considering how little floor space we had at our hotels and in-laws. I rarely put him on the ground for fear he would have been trampled by his brother and cousins. But he is moving around pretty well, and he has four teeth in with two more coming in.
• We tried to go see Niagara Falls. But traffic from Toronto to Niagara Falls was pretty heavy, and it was really crowded when we did get there. Owen saw the Falls, but wasn't impressed. On to Pittsburgh!
• Owen called Pittsburgh "Rothelisberger"
• We ate at a very loud and crowded Primanti Brothers Restaurant while waiting for the fireworks. It was excellent, but I don't think Lisa was impressed. Oh well. What's not to like with french fries and slaw IN your sandwich?
• Our hotel in Pittsburgh was expensive, but very close to PNC Park and the fireworks. What a show! And only a five minute walk from our hotel down to the Allegheny River. I realized that this was the first 4th of July fireworks I'd ever seen in Pittsburgh because we were always on the Outer Banks that week.
• We planned to go to the Zoo, but we were all out of steam by that point. A seventh night in a hotel room might have put us over the edge, so after a couple of stops (for food and formula), we decided to head back to Hartsville.
• We borrowed a GPS, which made the trip a little more interesting. We changed the voice to French and British English for fun. It was nice to have a list of close hotels when we got to Pittsburgh, and we could find a Wal-mart with ease. It definitely was good to have, and if we travelled more often, we would buy one ourselves.
• The GPS said it would take almost 11 hours to get home from Pittsburgh, but we made it home in under 10 with three stops.

A Rant about how no one cares about what I say

Tee hee, silly title, right?

It really doesn't have to do with this blog, at least entirely.

I'm just trying to figure out why people decide to participate in certain online conversations and not others, in social media like Facebook and message boards.

I could post a link to the most amazing article that has pertinence to most of my Facebook friends, but it goes unremarked upon and unnoticed beneath all of the infantile and ridiculous quizzes. (Fortunately, I've discovered you can hide quizzes without hiding the friend). Because I really don't care what video game character you are, or what you just did in Mafia Wars.

Yet an acquaintance posts something about a nefarious bodily function, and she gets 10 replies... a genuine conversation.

It isn't unique to Facebook, either. This has always happened to me on various message boards, dating back to the mid-1990s. I've used dozens of screen names, so I don't think people see my name and ignore me...

Maybe I just don't have anything interesting to say? Why do some people's opinions mean more to others, especially in an online environment?

The Hangover/Random Stuff/Father's Day

So we went to see The Hangover yesterday -- my boss graciously watched the boys so we could get out and enjoy some time together. I think this was the first movie that we've attended together since last summer. We saw Dark Knight in Myrtle Beach last July or August. Yikes.

Anyway, it was a funny movie...full of infantile jokes and so on. My following rant has nothing to do with the movie itself, which I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the sequel in a couple of years.

Shortly before the movie started, a group of giants sat in front of us in the non-stadium theater. I really hate this because the theater had probably 20-30 people and over 100 empty seats and this big goofball HAS to sit in front of me.

So we moved over to some empty seats across the theater, and while we were moving, Lisa noticed one of her former students (a rising 6th grader) and his eight year old brother, accompanied by their mother. The movie hadn't started yet, but we knew it was R-rated and from the trailers knew the content probably wasn't appropriate for children. In fact there were several groups of families with teenagers at this screening. As we watched the movie, I was even embarrassed by some of the content of the movie -- I couldn't imagine what the parents were thinking about some of that stuff. None of them got up and left either, but at least they didn't talk through the movie. I guess that is one consolation.

For being in a supposedly conservative area, where "church" means Southern Baptist and liquor can't be found for purchase between 12:01 am Sunday until 12:01 am Monday, I was shocked to see so many underage kids at this movie. I couldn't imagine my parents taking me to Porky's or Revenge of the Nerds back in the day (although I watched both on Cinemax well before I was 17). Unbelievable, but I guess the upside is that they were with their parents and not alone. If parents want to make that kind of choice, then they are free to do so.

Now some random stuff:

• My eye is finally getting back to normal. I poked it with a garden stake last Sunday night while weeding the tomato beds. I nicked the cornea and caused "significant" damage to the eyeball. Nothing permanent (to my knowledge), but I was pretty miserable for most of last week. Two sets of eye drops and now down to just a steroid to get the inflammation and light sensitivity alleviated. Almost back to 20/20!
• I had an enjoyable Father's Day. We went to our new church (more on that later), Owen made me a key holder at school, and both he and Wyatt "signed" my Father's Day card. Capped off with a movie and dinner, it was the perfect day. I can't believe it's been three father's days so far!
• Work is quiet, even with summer school in session.
• Our new president, Dr. Robert Wyatt, has been on campus even though he isn't "on the clock" until 1 July. This is an excellent sign, and it goes without saying that everyone on campus is excited about his arrival.
• My panel session talk at the SCLA Summer workshop was very well regarded. I got a lot of compliments from people in high places. I even pulled out the "What do libraries and bakeries have in common?" joke. Answer: Neither ever has enough dough.
  

That's it for now.

What's in a job title?

On Tuesday (June 9), I participated in a panel discussion at the SCLA college libraries summer program in Columbia. The panel discussed emerging roles in academic librarianship, and I was fortunate enough to be selected to discuss the small college perspective alongside two librarians from Clemson University.

Emerging roles was the theme of the workshop, and throughout the day I heard stories and anecdotes from larger school librarians about how much we all have to multi-task. I felt reassured that what we do at Coker in this regard isn't that much different than at other schools.

I feel that job titles in our field are mere starting points or "tips of the iceberg." Some are bound by HR/Personnel restrictions, while others of us can change our titles easily. Coker lies in the middle of these two points. I got to pick the favorite of my two main responsibilities to put first in my job title. I made this change recently (officially), and included it in my e-mail signature. Two days later, after sending out a staff and faculty-wide e-mail, I got a request to help someone with Microsoft Access! I guess "Electronic Resources" means something different for a non-librarian!

Here's an outline of my talk:

· Interviewed for Electronic Resources position (newly created) got the Bibliographic Instruction position, ended up having both jobs!

o Although resources were handled by other librarians, the sheer number (thank you PASCAL and DISCUS!) of new and future resources

· Unique background in a small family owned and operated business (bakery) helped facilitate transition to small college library job

o Multitasking is nothing new for me: I am also a reference librarian, collection development/liaison librarian, systems librarian…utility librarian!

· I view “electronic resources” to cover the broad spectrum of information delivery systems, not just periodical databases and other traditional resources

o Some of my tasks since coming to Coker:

§ Electronic Resources

· Virtual chat using Meebo & Facebook

· Kindle as a cost-effective replacement for subscription to New York Times

· Personal Response System (clickers) as an evaluation and assessment tool

§ Systems

· First major project was preparing to migrate from Voyager to III/Millennium

· EzProxy to provide off-campus access (moving from a homegrown solution)

§ Instruction

· Started a one-credit Intro to research skills course (LIB 101), assist with implementation of Advanced Research Skills Course (LIB 301)

· Assist with fundamental computer and research skills: first generation college students, non-traditional students, and students from “corridor of shame” school systems

§ Outreach

· Marketing the library

· Other roles: graduate school advising

o Graduate school forum

o Small school syndrome: more access to students, we know most of the juniors/seniors on a first name basis, this role has fallen through the cracks

Our discussion was well received, and I personally got several flattering comments. I tried to keep it light with humor -- I even made a horrendous pun about both libraries and bakeries not having enough dough.

Is it peculiar that I was more worried about driving and finding parking than I was about giving the actual panel discussion?

Tough Decisions

Yesterday afternoon was spent making decisions on what print periodicals to keep in our collection. It pains us to cut anything, especially from our very small print periodical section, but with the economic realities of this upcoming budget year, it is a necessary evil.

Our periodicals just don't see a lot of use, unfortunately. We've tried talking them up in courses and in faculty meetings, but these methods have not reaped any significant benefit.

The good news is that most of the periodicals are covered in full-text databases, which students and faculty prefer to digging through bound periodicals and back issues for articles. Our database usage is way up, of course.

We're planning to keep a large amount of popular periodicals for browsing purposes, and we'll end up keeping some journals that are tied to our most popular majors and minors.

We've shifted the subscriptions for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to the Kindle, and I hope to promote and market the e-reader more next fall.

(Thanks to University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Library for the picture)

Summer Projects at the Library

We had a splendid graduation on Saturday, with 180+ students earning diplomas. The weather cooperated for our outdoor ceremony, although it was hot with the black regalia!

I'll be starting my annual summer "catch up" projects soon. They will include:

• Statistics - we gather a multitude of statistics for a variety of professional and governmental agencies. I will be placing them in spreadsheets and deciphering what the individual surveys are actually looking for.
• LibGuides - we will be adding to our very slim collection of subject guides. We need to beef them up for a hard launch in the fall
• Revamping LIB101 - Alexa and I are retooling LIB101 from the ground up, and going without a textbook.
• Updating EzProxy - our proxy software is a couple of years old now, so it will need updating with the help of our crack IT staff. I probably won't do this until mid-July when Coker is not in session
• Prepping for my SCLA poster session - I am still working on a Kindle poster idea for this Fall's annual conference.

This is only the tip of the iceberg!